Tag "Paris"

Vastly more complex than the Paris Agreement itself are the set of rules that will make it work After three years of talking, delegates have arrived in Katowice, Poland, to make a deal on the so-called rulebook of the Paris Agreement.
Why are they still negotiating?
These include guidelines on how to articulate and track national climate pledges or, in UN jargon, nationally determined contributions or NDCs; how to meet a national target by helping other countries to reduce their emissions, or how to communicate national efforts to adapt to climate change.
Also on the table will be rules on how to report on finance for climate action and equip developing countries with technology to combat climate change.
Finally, there’s already a copious section dedicated to making the reporting actions more transparent and defining reviewing procedures, such as the global stocktake or the compliance committee.
Country A, for example, may give economy-wide targets for cutting carbon, while others will focus on bringing down emissions per sector.
This will help to make the implementation of the Paris agreement more transparent over time, and foster countries’ trust in each other’s efforts.
In return for greater accountability, developing countries will be expecting financial help from rich countries.
Many of the debates over the rulebook will focus on how climate action is reviewed.
Are the rules going to be the same for every country?

Almost immediately, Bill Peduto, the mayor of Pittsburgh, retorted via Twitter: “I can assure you that we will follow the guidelines of the Paris Agreement for our people, our economy & future.” In the year since, an alliance of American cities, states and green groups have flung themselves at the gaping void left by Trump’s decision to remove the world’s second-largest carbon polluter from a deal aimed at preserving the livability of much of the planet.
This coalition has experienced a bruising 12 months during which successes at a local level have been regularly overshadowed by an administration intent on tearing down any edifice of climate policy.
Hitting toughest climate target will save world $30tn in damages, analysis shows Read more Pittsburgh is one of 405 municipalities representing 70m Americans that are signed on to the Climate Mayors initiative, which has blossomed in the past year.
This backlash has spurred cities to quicken the pace in certain areas – New York is to electrify its bus fleet and Los Angeles has promised to abandon coal-fired electricity.
New York has also vowed to divest from fossil fuels and is suing the world’s largest oil companies for their role in escalating sea level rise, heatwaves and natural disasters.
“It’s powerful to see cities and states stepping up.
US energy emissions are at a 25-year low due to trends in energy efficiency and the decline of coal.
In the absence of the US, we are seeing some countries try to pull back on what was agreed to in Paris.
“Everyone is doing their best but it’s not like there are levers of power to pull in Washington at the moment,” said McKibben.
“The problem with climate change is that it’s a timed test.

With one foot out the Brexit door, the UK is secretly trying to weaken EU commitments to the Paris agreement in a move branded “rude” by one member of European parliament (MEP), The Guardian reported Wednesday.
The EU is currently set to reduce its energy use by 20 percent by making improvements to energy efficiency and buildings.
The targets cover the years 2014 to 2020, but the UK is lobbying to be allowed to count efficiency improvements made from 2010, and to carry over any improvements made over the target to count towards post-2020 commitments. “This approach would risk failure in our efforts to reach even moderately ambitious overall targets, while the higher—and beneficial targets—that we need to strive for could become lost altogether,” Jávor said.
Unlike their counterparts in the U.S., UK conservatives currently in power have rhetorically embraced global environmental action.
The UK has also emerged as a leader in the global fight against ocean plastics this year, announcing in April a plan to end the sale of single-use plastics like straws and drink stirrers.
But some are concerned that the government’s actions won’t match its words, and this move confirms those fears. “This sneaky, behind-the-scenes amendment indicates a government that likes to pretend it is a global leader but will not take the strong policy action needed to deliver the necessary change,” shadow international trade and climate spokesman Barry Gardiner told The Guardian.
These concerns were further supported by a recent risk analysis commissioned by Friends of the Earth that found that Brexit is likely to weaken UK environmental regulations.
The analysis found that a 25-year environment plan launched by May and touted by Gove was vague and less ambitious than current EU law.

Michał Kurtyka, who has been named president of this year’s COP24 climate talks, is a cosmopolitan anomaly in Poland’s nationalist government.
A doctor of economics, he serves as a deputy minister in the energy department, where he has overseen a push for electric vehicles.
He will take on the role in the most critical talks since the Paris Agreement was struck in 2015.
The appointment of the junior, unelected apparatchik as president of the UN climate talks breaks a long tradition of countries appointing senior politicians to the role.
Kurtyka leapfrogs Jan Szyszko, a former environment minister who was president of the fifth UN climate talks in 1999.
There has been apprehension among more progressive nations and NGOs about the Polish hosting of the 2018 talks, which will take place in the Silesian city of Katowice in December.
“The COP president needs to be a manager and a negotiator, primarily, and he seems to be a good candidate.” The current president of the climate talks, Fijian president Frank Bainimarama wrote to Kurtyka congratulating him on his appointment.
“Fiji places the greatest importance on accelerating the global response to the threat posed by climate change.
This stocktaking of global action begins at interim talks in Bonn this week.
The initiative is aimed at increasing the ambition of all countries, something Poland has resisted.

Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg will write a $4.5 million check to fund the United States’ annual commitment to the Paris climate deal after President Donald Trump withdrew from the pact.
Bloomberg, a billionaire philanthropist and the United Nations’ special envoy for climate action, said Sunday he will fill the U.S. funding gap after Congress said it would only pay $3 million this year to the U.N.
Climate Change Secretariat.
“America made a commitment, and as an American, if the government’s not going to do it, we all have responsibility,” Bloomberg said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “I’m able to do it, so, yes, I’m going to send them a check for the monies that America had promised to the organization as though they got it from the federal government.” Bloomberg said he would consider bankrolling the American commitment next year if the U.S. again fails to pay.
“He should change his mind and say, look there really is a problem here,” Bloomberg said.
“America is part of the problem.
Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Paris Agreement last year, fulfilling a campaign promise and dealing a heavy blow to American involvement in the climate fight.
In recent months, Trump’s top environmental deputies, Environmental Protection Agency head Scott Pruitt and Interior Department chief Ryan Zinke, have worked to undo environmental protections.
The U.S. also had pledged to pay $3 billion into the Green Climate Fund, which helps poorer countries adapt to climate change.
Trump cut that payment after complaining it was too expensive.

Macron begins Trump charm offensive with Fox News interview Read more Donald Trump last year pulled the US out of the deal, which was signed by Barack Obama, making the US the only country opposed.
Even Syria, torn by an 11-year civil war, has signed the pact.
Bloomberg, whose net worth Forbes pegs at about $50bn, was speaking to CBS’s Face the Nation.
He did not commit to provide funds beyond 2018 and said he hoped that by next year Trump would have changed his mind.
“He should change his mind and say look there really is a problem here.
America is part of the problem.
“All I know is that America, I believe, will meet its commitment by 2025 to reduce greenhouse gases by an agreed amount, and if we do it hopefully other countries will do it as well.” Asked if he was “filling a leadership gap” on the issue, Bloomberg – who was a Republican mayor of New York and considered a 2016 presidential run as an independent – said: “Well, I think that this is what the American public when you poll them say they want to do.” The odds on him running for the White House in future, he said, were “not very high”.
Bloomberg said the man in charge of much of that roll-back, Scott Pruitt, Trump’s scandal-ridden Environmental Protection Agency chief, had “walked away 100%” from doing his job, which “is to protect the environment”.
Bloomberg said the Trump appointee, who has expressed doubt about accepted climate science, was “saying the environment doesn’t need protection” and saying instead he would “try to protect jobs”.
If there’s a possibility that it’s right, you have to take prophylactic actions to prevent a disaster.” Firing Pruitt would be up to Trump, Bloomberg said, adding: “If he could get Scott Pruitt to change his policies, then he can keep him.”

The world needs to speed up its transition to renewable energy by a factor of six if it wants to meet the goals set out in the Paris agreement to prevent the worst impacts of climate change, a new study by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) concluded.
The report found that the Paris goal of keeping global temperatures well below two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels was “technically feasible” but that current energy plans by world governments would not do the job.
Indeed, an unaltered approach would spend the global carbon dioxide emissions budget in 20 years.
For this to happen, renewable energy would have to account for two-thirds of global energy consumption by 2050; in 2015, it accounted for 18 percent.
Further, renewable energy’s share in the power sector would have to rise from one-quarter to 85 percent in the same time period, and global energy demand would have to fall by two-thirds by 2050 as well.
IRENA called its plan for increasing renewable energy and energy efficiency by 2050 REmap and specified country-by-country targets.
It found that renewable energy could make up 67 percent of China’s energy consumption by that date, 70 percent of the EU’s, and two-thirds or more of India’s and the U.S’s.
IRENA said the REmap plan is possible with available and affordable technologies, but it would still require an investment.
The total dollar amount put in to the energy system would have to increase by 30 percent by 2050.
IRENA’s plan is a win-win, but it requires swift action.

These targets refer to allowable temperature increases over pre-industrial temperatures.
Specifically, they ask “How much larger are the impacts at 2°C compared to 1.5°C?” A follow-on question asked by the authors relates to what conditions occur at a particular level of warming, such as 2°C.
This is a really important question because policymakers need to know what it will take to adapt to a 1.5°C world or a 2°C world.
The authors focus on the impact of climate change on food security, and in particular, how changes to extreme weather will impact food production.
We know that in a warming world, the weather will get wetter.
We are already seeing this in the US, for example, where the most extreme rainfalls are increasing across the country.
For instance, with a 2°C warmer world, the land areas mostly warm by more than 2°C.
But increased flooding or drought can impact food production and distribution, making food systems less secure.
The study really focused on drought and rainfall only.
The other word of caution is that this study is purposely limited to extreme weather, fresh water, and agriculture.

Nearly six months after elections took place, three German parties finally signed an agreement to form a coalition government Monday, Reuters reported.
But while the agreement, between Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union, its Bavarian sister party the Christian Social Union, and the Social Democratic Party, might relieve Germany’s political uncertainty, it is less reassuring for the environment, according to some critics.
While the agreement formally commits to “national, European, and Paris Climate Agreement climate protection goals for 2020, 2030, and 2050 for all sectors,” it also makes plans to phase out coal in such a way so as to “close the gap to the 2020 goal ‘as much as possible,'” according to a Factsheet on the agreement prepared by Clean Energy Wire.
But Höhne said the agreement did not do enough to meet Paris targets.
Rainer Baake, Germany’s former energy state secretary who oversaw Germany’s “Energiewende,” or transition to renewable energy, for the past four years, quit last week.
Germany has long been a global leader in the fight against climate change. “On the world stage, Merkel fights for international climate agreements, while at home she misses her own climate targets,” Claudia Kemfert, energy and climate expert at the German Institute for Economic Research, told DW.
While Germany has made impressive strides in renewable energy, its total emissions have not always fallen as a result, since it still gets a significant amount of energy from coal, DW explained. “If a country like Germany, whose outstanding role in international climate diplomacy made the Paris Agreement possible, does not meet its long-established goal, who will?”
he wrote.

GE Renewable Energy has unveiled plans to develop the world’s largest and most powerful offshore wind turbine.
Each 12-megawatt Haliade-X stands 853 feet tall, or roughly five times the height of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, and features 350-foot blades, or the length of a Major League Soccer field.
One turbine can generate 67 gigawatt-hours annually, or enough clean energy for up to 16,000 households.
GE says the Haliade-X will produce 45 percent more energy than any other offshore wind turbine available today.
GE estimates the new turbine will achieve a 63 percent capacity factor, which is five to seven points more than the industry benchmark, noting that each percentage point in capacity factor is worth around $7 million.
More than $400 million will be invested over the next three to five years to develop the Haliade-X. “The renewables industry took more than 20 years to install the first 17 GW of offshore wind.
Today, the industry forecasts that it will install more than 90 GW over the next 12 years,” said Jérôme Pécresse, president and CEO of GE Renewable Energy. “This is being driven by lower cost of electricity from scale and technology.
World’s First Floating Wind Farm Exceeds Expectations https://t.co/SPJz70okxh @WindEnergyPower @WindPow — EcoWatch (@EcoWatch) 1518906007.0

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